Two weeks ago, the House Education and Labor Committee, with the strong encouragement of the Obama administration, took a step toward ending the false premise that private lenders are full partners in the federally subsidized college loan program. If a bill approved by the committee becomes law, private lenders will be cut out of this program and will have to stop dining at their taxpayer-provided trough.
....
The lenders have held up the pretense that they provide better service than does an arm of the federal government and that there are actually differences among bank loans, so that students stand to benefit by picking one over the other.

Sorry, but that notion is a sham. Congress has long required that the terms of these loans be identical, regardless of whether they are issued by the government or a private lender. It doesn’t matter to the student where the money comes from — the dollar amounts, the interest rates and even the repayment terms are virtually the same.

For taxpayers, though, there is a difference, and it’s a big one. In the case of presumed “private” loans, the government pays more than it does for “direct” loans — billions of dollars more — because it guarantees the principal amount and it promises a minimal return to the lender. Banks are supposed to be compensated for taking risks, but in the case of government-subsidized student loans, they incur almost no risk. Yet they get compensated anyway.

Moreover, there’s ample evidence that some private lenders have engaged in questionable or worse behavior to persuade colleges to funnel student borrowers their way. When money is free, people will do all sorts of things to get their hands on it. And that raises questions about why lawmakers would want to perpetuate a system that promotes graft, as well as waste.

Some small employers say that it’s difficult to get a handle on exactly what they pay in fees, and that it often requires digging through documents or calling the various parties involved.

Gordon Maccani, chief executive of Digital Telecommunications Corp., in Van Nuys, Calif., says he thought he was paying only $3,600 a year to a third-party recordkeeper to manage his company’s 15-year-old 401(k) plan, which has about $920,000 in assets and 38 participants.

But Mr. Maccani says he recently started reviewing his annual plan statements from Transamerica Retirement Services and noticed there’s an array of other fees paid out of assets, including a 1.2% “contract asset fee,” $8,500 in “charges and fees” and about $1,400 in partner distribution fees. He originally didn’t get a clear answer, he says, when he called the company to inquire. But Transamerica called Mr. Maccani and gave him a comprehensive fee breakdown after being contacted by The Wall Street Journal. The company is a unit of Transamerica Life Insurance Co., owned by Aegon NV, a multinational Dutch insurance firm.

Transamerica’s recently provided breakdown shows Digital Telecommunications’ 401(k) plan actually paid about $16,300 in fees last year.

• Protects your access to the doctor of your choice—incenting more family doctors to enter the profession and more doctors to practice in rural areas—and allowing all Americans to keep their current doctor.
• Phases in completely filling in the “donut hole” in the Medicare prescription drug benefit (where drug costs are not reimbursed at certain levels), potentially savings seniors thousands of dollars a year.
• Eliminates co-payments and deductibles for preventive services under Medicare.
• Limits cost-sharing requirements in Medicare Advantage plans to the amount charged for the same services in traditional Medicare coverage.
• Improves the low-income subsidy programs in Medicare, such as by increasing asset limits for programs that help Medicare beneficiaries pay premiums and cost-sharing.
• Computerizes medical records so seniors won’t have to take the same test over and over or relay their entire medical history every time they see a new provider.
• Starts rewarding doctors for the quality, not just the quantity, of care they provide.
• Extends solvency of Medicare by 5 years or more.

Compared with the crazy-quilt system we have now, the idea behind the health insurance exchange is almost weirdly simple: It's a single market, structured for consumer convenience, in which you choose between the products of competing health insurers (both public and private). This is not a new idea. It is how we buy everything from books to socks to soup. Everything, that is, except health insurance. The benefits of reversing that bit of accidental exceptionalism are obvious to anyone who has ever stepped inside a Target: Consumers will benefit from more choice, from direct competition between insurance providers hungry for their business, from regulations meant to protect them from deceptive products, from efficiencies of scale, and from the sort of purchasing power that only a large base of customers can provide. They will benefit, in other words, from an actual, working market -- something health insurers have managed to avoid for far too long.

But all health insurance exchanges are not created equal. Just as there's a weak and strong version of the public plan, there's a weak and strong version of the exchange.

The strong version is national, or at least regional. It's open to everyone: The unemployed, the self-employed and any business, no matter the size, that wants to buy in. There's risk adjustment to reduce the incentive for cherry-picking. The huge pool of users gives the exchange tremendous advantages in scale, simplicity and standardization (experts say that you need at least 20 million to fully achieve these benefits -- easy in a national exchange but harder in a regional or state-based one). With so many potential customers, insurers are eager to participate, and they will bid aggressively to ensure they're included in the market and compete aggressively to make sure they're successful within it. Over time, the combination of increased efficiencies and greater competition drive down costs, which will lead more employers to use the exchange, which will in turn give it more scale and bargaining power. You could easily see this exchange slowly emerge as the de facto American health-care system. And not through government fiat. Through consumer choice.

The only way that health-care reform will truly give us a more efficient, more effective, more affordable health-care system is if it begins to fundamentally change the inefficient, ineffective, unaffordable system we have now. The strength of the health insurance exchanges is the key to that transition. That is not to underplay the political or policy challenges. Change is scary. But it's what Obama promised, and it's what the health-care system needs.

If there is anything that we learned from the "pay for play" student loan scandal, it is how little choice borrowers in the FFEL program actually have. Don't forget that in 2007, the Education Department found that one lender made at least 80 percent of students' federal loans at 921 participating colleges. That same year, the research firm Student Marketmeasure reported that 1,412 FFEL schools had one loan provider that made 80 percent of their students' federal loans, with 531 of those colleges recommending only a single lender to their students. What kind of a choice is that?

• What are the elements of reform?
  
• Is there help for the insured?
  
• Is there more security for all?
• Who pays?
• Who won't be happy?
• What if I have good group coverage?
• Will I pay less?
• Will my care suffer?
• What does it mean for older Americans?

Across the country each year, thousands of schoolchildren—especially disabled ones—are restrained or isolated for misbehaving. The Government Accountability Office reported more than 33,000 incidents of restraint or seclusion last year at schools in Texas and California, two of only six states that track such data. Nineteen states have no regulations at all regarding the use of restraint and seclusion in schools.

George Miller (D., Calif.) is working on a new set of rules that could limit the use of restraint and seclusion, provide funding to train school staff, and require communication with parents if extreme disciplinary measures are used. Says Miller: “We’re meeting with the Obama Administration and education experts about a federal action to keep kids safe and stop horrific abuses from going unchecked.”

In a first-of-its-kind study, the non-profit Rand Corp linked the rapid growth in U.S. health care costs to job losses and lower output. The study, published online by the journal Health Services Research, gives weight to President Barack Obama’s dire warnings about the impact of rising costs if Congress does not enact health care reform.

• In 2018, all employer-provided plans will have to meet the minimum standard benefit offered as part of the Exchange. These minimum benefits will be based on 70 percent of the typical health insurance plan offered by employers today.
• More than 90 percent of all employer health insurance plans already meet or exceed these standards. Employers that do not meet these minimum standards will have until 2018 to meet the minimum standards.

• The Lewin Group (a wholly-owned subsidiary of UnitedHealthcare) analysis was requested by the right-wing Heritage Foundation has been widely discredited for its flawed review of the House legislation.
• The House bill actually protects and increases employer-sponsored insurance. According to official CBO numbers, 2 million more people would be covered under employer-sponsored insurance than is projected to be the case today – 164 million compared to 162 under current law.

• The legislation does not change current law regarding lawsuits.

• Nothing in the legislation prevents employers from offering health savings accounts. In fact, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, the average HSA today will meet or exceed the minimum benefits standards.

The federal college loan program that pays private lenders a generous subsidy to make loans that are guaranteed by the government is an enormous waste of money that has long served more to enrich lenders than to help students.

[It] would end the unnecessary private lending subsidies and plow the savings into important education programs. The bill, for example, devotes $40 billion to the all-important Pell grant program, which has allowed millions of poor and working-class students to attend college.

It would spend $8 billion on early-education programs and $10 billion on an initiative aimed at strengthening community colleges. It sets aside $4 billion for a school modernization and improvement program.

The consolidated program proposed in the bill would in no way expand government. The loans would be handled through colleges. They would be serviced and collected by private companies and nonprofits that are already lining up to get the work. By forcing the companies to compete, and to undergo periodic re-evaluations, Congress could get a good deal for taxpayers and better service for borrowers.

• President Obama's statement »


• Rep. Petri's (R-WI) statement »
  (PDF, 17kb)
• 21st Century School Fund »
  (PDF, 63kb)
• AFL-CIO »
  (PDF, 46kb)
  
• AEC Science & Technology »
  (PDF, 121kb)
• American Association of Community Colleges »
  (PDF 74kb)
• American Association of School Administrators »
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• American Association of State Colleges and Universities »
  (PDF, 37kb)
• American Association of University Women »
  (PDF, 63kb)
• American Council on Education »
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• American Federation of Teachers »
  (PDF 77kb)
• American Indian Higher Education Consortium »
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• American Institute of Architects »
  (PDF, 63kb)
• Association for Career and Technical Education »
  (PDF, 49kb)
• Association of American Universities »
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• Association of Community College Trustees »
  (PDF 74kb)
• Association of Educational Service Agencies »
  (PDF, 63kb)
  
• Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities »
  (16 kb)
• Association of Public and Land-grant Universities »
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• Business Roundtable »
  (PDF, 52kb)
• California Charter Schools Association »
  (PDF, 71kb)
• Californians for Schools Facilities »
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• Campaign for America's Future »
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• Campaign for College Affordability »
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• Campus Progress»
  (PDF, 26KB)
• Campus Progress Action »
  (PDF 42kb)
• Center for Law and Social Policy »
  (PDF, 66kb)
• Children Now »
  (PDF 116kb)
• Children's Defense Fund »
  (PDF, 74kb)
• College Board »
  (PDF 378kb)
• Council for Opportunity in Education »
  (PDF 64kb)
• Council of Educational Facility Planners International »
  (PDF, 63kb)
  
• Council of the Great City Schools »
  (PDF 62kb)
• Demos »
  (PDF, 46kb)
• Early Care and Education Consortium »
  (PDF, 60kb)
• Easter Seals Disability Services »
  (PDF, 132kb)
• Ecobuild America »
  (PDF 121kb)
• Education Finance Council »
  (PDF 23kb)
• EDUCAUSE »
  (PDF, 37kb)
• Fight Crime: Invest in Kids »
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• First Five Years Fund »
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• First Focus »
  (PDF, 339kb)
• Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities »
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• International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers »
  (PDF, 63kb)
• National Association for College Admission Counseling »
  (PDF 54kb)
• National Association for the Education of Young Children »
  (PDF, 42kb)
  
• National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education »
  (PDF, 37kb)
• National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies »
  (PDF, 1.34mb)
• National Association of Elementary School Principals
  (PDF, 51kb)
• National Association of Federally Impacted Schools »
  (PDF, 47kb)
• National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators »
  (PDF 121kb)
• National Black Child Development Institute »
  (PDF, 84kb)
• National Consumers League »
  (PDF, 46kb)
• National Direct Student Loan Coalition »
  (PDF 118kb)
• National Education Association »
  (PDF 62kb)
• National Fraternal Order of Police »
  (PDF 44kb)
• National Head Start Association »
  (PDF, 38kb)
• National PTA »
  (PDF, 63kb)
• National Rural Education Advocacy Coalition »
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• National School Boards Association »
  (PDF 111kb)
• National Women's Law Center »
  (PDF, 34kb)
• Organizations Concerned About Rural Education »
  (PDF, 63kb)
• Pew's Pre-K Now »
  (PDF, 24kb)
• Rebuild America's Schools »
  (PDF, 63kb)
• Rock the Vote »
  (PDF, 46kb)
• State Higher Education Executive Officers »
  (PDF 67kb)
• The Institute for College Access & Success »
  (PDF, 30KB)
• UNCF »
  (PDF, 37kb)
• United States Green Building Council »
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• United States Public Interest Research Group »
  (PDF 165kb)
• United States Student Association »
  (PDF, 970kb)
• US Action »
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• Voices for America's Children »
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• The Workforce Alliance »
  (PDF 41kb)
• Zero to Three »
  (PDF 50kb)

This taxpayer money is urgently needed to provide aid to students for whom a four-year college is out of reach. Earlier this week, Obama proposed to infuse $12 billion into community colleges. Another block of savings will give extra funding for Pell Grants and link them with cost-of-living increases.

In this economic climate, Congress must fix the broken system that unnecessarily takes money from taxpayers and students. Educational investments should go straight to students.

House Democratic leaders have unveiled a bill that would go a long way toward solving the nation's health insurance problems without driving up the deficit. It is already drawing fierce opposition from business groups and many Republicans. This is a bill worth fighting for.

The bill would require virtually all Americans to carry health insurance or pay a penalty. And it would require all but the smallest businesses to provide health insurance for their workers or pay a substantial fee. It would also expand Medicaid to cover many more poor people, and it would create new exchanges through which millions of middle-class Americans could buy health insurance with the help of government subsidies. The result would be near-universal coverage at a surprisingly manageable cost to the federal government.

....

The legislation also includes some sound ideas for slowing the inexorable rise in health care costs. Such savings are also essential for the nation’s economic health. It adjusts Medicare reimbursements to encourage health care providers to improve productivity, reduce costly hospital readmissions and spend more time on primary care that can head off the need for costly specialists. It expands prevention and wellness activities.

And it establishes a center to compare the effectiveness of various drugs, devices and procedures. Unfortunately, it prohibits the government from requiring public or private insurers to set reimbursement policies based on the findings. These steps may not produce big savings quickly but could lower costs in future years.

The bill makes a mockery of Republican claims that the Democrats are pushing a hugely costly government takeover of medicine.

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

______________________________________________________________________________

 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                                 July 15, 2009

Statement from the President on Chairman Miller’s education reform bill

I applaud Chairman Miller for introducing an education reform bill that will cut giveaways to special interests, invest in our children’s future, and save taxpayer’s money. 

Chairman Miller and I are working to end the wasteful subsidies that are given to banks and private lenders for student loans.  Instead, his legislation will make college more affordable by paying for annual increases in Pell Grants that keep pace with inflation.  He’s also working with us to simplify financial aid forms and increase graduation rates. 

This legislation will also help us reach the goal I set out in Michigan this week to graduate five million more Americans from community colleges by 2020.  These institutions can act as job training centers for the 21st century, and this legislation makes the largest investment in community colleges in fifty years, challenging them to increase completion rates, strengthen ties with businesses, modernize facilities, and offer new online learning opportunities.  Chairman Miller’s legislation will also invest in high-quality early education that can save taxpayers several dollars for every one we spend.  It includes $10 billion for early learning challenge grants that will ask states to ensure that the number of children who start school ready to learn is growing each year.

Finally, I am proud that this legislation not only pays for itself, but also saves taxpayers money and reduces the deficit.  I look forward to working with the Chairman and Congress to make this bill even stronger and pass it before the end of the year.

For K-12 schools:
• Authorizes more than $4 billion for elementary and secondary school facility projects over the next two fiscal years, and ensures that school districts will receive funds for school modernization, renovation, and repairs that create healthier, safer, and more energy-efficient teaching and learning climates.
• Allocates the same percentage of funds to school districts that they receive under Part A of Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, except that it guarantees each such district a minimum of $5,000.

For Community Colleges:
• Provides grants to states to help community colleges finance new construction, modernization, renovation, and repair projects.
• Allows grant funds to be used to match private donations to a community college capital campaign.

• Requires the majority of funds to be used for projects that meet green building standards. Allows states to reserve one percent of the elementary and secondary funding to administer the program, provide technical assistance, and to develop voluntary guidelines for high-performing school buildings.
• Increases transparency by requiring school districts to publicly report the types of modernization, renovation, and repairs completed as well as the educational, energy and environmental benefits of such projects.
• Brings innovative projects to scale by requiring the Secretary of Education, in consultation with the Secretary of Energy and the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, to disseminate best practices in school construction and to provide technical assistance to states and school districts.

• Provides $60 million over two years for public elementary and secondary schools that were damaged by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Many students still attend school in temporary classrooms.

Fix loan system for a stronger future
By: Rep. George Miller

This summer, millions of students will sit down with their families to figure out how to pay for college. They will unwittingly enter into a financial lending system that is badly broken — and not benefiting them as intended.

However, if Congress and President Barack Obama are successful, this system is about to undergo a major change.

The college financing system that was supposed to ensure all students access to college is dangerously out of control, for three reasons.

First, tuition has skyrocketed and shows no signs of abating.

Second, the roller-coaster credit markets have put the federally guaranteed student loan program, which for years has originated almost three-quarters of all federal college loans, on life support.

• No more co-pays or deductibles for preventative care.
• No more rate increases because of a pre-existing condition, your gender, or
occupation.
• An annual cap on your out-of-pocket expenses.
• Group rates of a national pool if you buy your own plan.
• Guaranteed, affordable oral, hearing and vision care for your kids.

• You can keep your doctor and your current plan if you like them.
• Your choices will be protected and enhanced. You will have access to a wide
variety of choices for quality and affordable plans, including a high-quality public
health insurance option to compete with private insurers.

• You and your doctors make health care decisions – not insurance companies.
• More family doctors and nurses will be able to enter the workforce, helping
guarantee you access to better treatment that meets your needs.
• Mental health care must be covered.

• Never again will you go without health insurance.
• You will have the peace of mind knowing that you will never lose coverage if you
lose a job or switch jobs.
• You will never be denied coverage because of a pre-existing condition.
• And you won’t face any lifetime limits on how much insurance companies will
pay – meaning you will never again be one treatment away from bankruptcy.

The poll of 3,026 adults, surveyed Friday through Sunday, has a margin of error of +/-2 percentage points. Some questions, asked of half the sample, have an error margin of +/-3 points.

By 56%-33%, those surveyed endorse the idea of enacting major health care changes this year. Just one in four say it's not important to them.

When it comes to financing the costs, six of 10 favor the idea of requiring employers to provide health insurance for their workers or pay a fee instead. Increasing income taxes on upper-income Americans, an approach backed by House Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., is endorsed by 58%. Just over half support taxing sugary soft drinks.

In Washington, the effort to limit the use of such techniques is being championed by Rep. George Miller, chairman of the House Committee on Education and Labor. In January, the California Democrat called for the GAO review, and last month his committee held hearings. What was discovered, he said in an interview, is a system "in which children are unnecessarily dying and being harmed."

In testimony before Congress in May, Education Secretary Arne Duncan called such findings "disturbing" and said he is instructing chief school officers in all 50 states to detail their plans for keeping students safe.

...

The scope of any possible federal law is still uncertain. Mr. Miller and others involved in the discussions say they would like it to be crafted so that states are primarily responsible for developing and enforcing policies.

"This program will provide much-needed relief to Illinois students and families who are already struggling in this tough economy," said U.S. Rep. Phil Hare, D-Rock Island, who approved the legislation. "We should be rewarding those who pursue a higher education, not crippling them with debt. When the best and the brightest students can afford to go to college, we all benefit."

Under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, the Obama administration announced yesterday [although this provision was enacted 2 years ago by Congress], people with student loans can have their debts erased after 10 years of public service. Let's say Dr. Feelgood graduates from medical school with a mountain of student loan debt. Her heart, and a little angel on one shoulder, tell her to work in a clinic serving a low-income community on tribal lands, but that little devil on her other shoulder says to become a plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills. And the little devil is holding her empty pocketbook as evidence to back his case.

If the doctor follows her heart and makes 120 payments -- one a month for 10 years -- on her student loan, Uncle Sam will tell her to forget the rest of the money she owes.

Elisheba Evans, a former UT English student who transferred to the University of North Texas, is paying off her UT-Austin student loans.

She said the program’s forgiveness clause will benefit her in her career choice as a science teacher.

“It’s good that there is a system in place to reward people going into [public service] because you aren’t making that much at all,” Evans said.

“These benefits are guaranteed, no matter what happens in our economy, and are kicking in at exactly the right time for millions of Americans,” said Representative George Miller, Democrat of California and chairman of the House education committee.

“Confusing paperwork shouldn’t stand between qualified students and a college degree,” said Rep. George Miller, a California Democrat who is chairman of the House Committee on Education and Labor. A law passed last year helped, creating a two-page form for some low-income families.

As 401ks continue to weaken in a rough economy, lawmakers are paying closer attention to what they can control: the buried fees. Over a lifetime, 401k fees can add up to a six-figures number.

No doubt 401ks have taken a beating in the economic downturn. Retirement plans have lost an estimated $2 trillion -- and that's brought more attention to the buried fees charged by 401k plans. Today, a House committee takes up legislation that would address those fees.

House leaders unveiled Friday their version of a health care overhaul. House Democrats are showing unusual unity on the complicated issue: a single measure will proceed through three different committees on its way to a House floor vote slated for late July.

But what if you have a job, but not a lot of income? Under the Income-Based Repayment plan (IBR) your payments are capped to no more than 15% of discretionary income, an amount that is based on the federal poverty guideline. "Discretionary income" is defined as the difference between adjusted gross income and 150 percent of the federal poverty line that corresponds to your family size and the state you live in (from www.finaid.org).

Proponents say the reforms will bring down costs through increased competition and provide every American access to health care regardless of employment status or income.

"I think it's going to happen," Miller said of the restructuring legislation. "People recognize the shortcomings of the system they now have. The economy has shown the vulnerability of families at all levels when people lose their jobs and their health care. It's very hard to see how you fix the American economy if you don't fix health care."

Nearly 20 million children now receive free or reduced-price lunches in the nation's schools, an all-time high, federal data show, and many school districts are struggling to cover their share of the meals' rising costs.

Through February, nationwide enrollment in free school lunch programs was up 6.3% over the same time last year, to 16.5 million students, based on data from the U.S. Food and Nutrition Service (FNS), which subsidizes the programs. Participation in reduced-price lunch programs rose to 3.2 million students, the data show.

...

Preliminary school lunch data for March suggest that February's record demand may be dipping slightly. Still, Congress should give "serious consideration" to boosting the federal subsidy during the reauthorization this fall of the Child Nutrition Act, says Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., who chairs the House Education and Labor Committee. "For millions of children, this is the nutritional safety net."

Cut to 2009, when Barack Obama thinks education is the most exciting of subjects. Even so, Obama and his education secretary, Arne Duncan, get Barzun. They understand that the key to fixing education is better teaching, and the key to better teaching is figuring out who can teach and who can't.

...

Like Obama and Duncan, Rep. George Miller, the leading reformer in Congress, wants the money to be targeted on just a few programs with track records in turning around poorly performing schools and training teachers better. He rightly figures we know what works now and should just go ahead and fund it.

First, income-based repayment will only be available for federal student loans that are in good standing. Under this plan, borrowers' monthly payments will be capped at 15% of the amount by which their income exceeds the federal poverty level (currently $16,245).

Let's say you have an adjusted gross income of $30,000. That means your pay exceeds the federal poverty level by $13,755 a year, or $1,146.25 a month. Under the new program, you would owe 15% of that amount, or $171.94, per month, regardless of your total outstanding loan balance.

If you left school owing $40,000 in federal loans, you would pay $460.32 a month under the standard 10-year plan. By choosing the income-based repayment plan, you would save 63% per month (by lengthening the life of the loan, however, you will end up paying more in interest over time.)

This is a system that goes something like this:

• We the taxpayers pay the banks to make loans to students.
• We the taxpayers then guarantee the loans so the banks won’t lose money if the students don’t pay.
• We the taxpayers then buy back the loans from the banks so they can make more loans to students, for which we will then pay them more rewards.

Are you with me so far? Wait, I see a hand waving back there. What’s that, sir? You want to know why the government doesn’t just lend the money out itself? Excellent question!

The White House estimates that it could save about $94 billion over 10 years if it cut out all the middlemen. And it has the basis of a system in place, since the Department of Education already makes a lot of direct loans to students.

This is outrageous. Federal law allows workers in hospitals and treatment centers to restrain children only in emergencies, but the law leaves it up to the states to set policies regarding schools. State laws differ greatly. Many states allow teachers to severely restrain disabled children for little reason. To its credit, Nevada does not. The state outlaws the use of restraints on disabled children except where absolutely necessary and requires that school employees who work with disabled students receive training on “positive behavioral intervention.”

The disparity between states and the harshness of some of the restraint techniques has caught the attention of Congress. Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., said the result is that many students “are abused under the guise of punishment.”

Miller has called for legislation to outlaw schools from restraining or secluding students except in emergencies. Congress should act on that before any more students are hurt.

Confining and restraining a student should be the last resort in every classroom. Training must be a critical part of any state policy. School should be a safe place for students and faculty.

His case is one of 10 to be highlighted today during a hearing on Capitol Hill over the use of restraint and seclusion in the USA's public and private schools — techniques often used to control children with disabilities.

A new report from the Government Accountability Office, Congress' investigative arm, also out today, finds "widespread" allegations of abuse involving the practices in schools — even when students aren't physically aggressive or dangerous to themselves or others.

Investigators say they uncovered hundreds of allegations of abuse involving restraint or seclusion at public and private schools nationwide between 1990 and 2009.

Starting July 1, there will be new help for recent grads -- or those who have been out of school for a while and are struggling to repay student loans. The new federal Income-Based Repayment program will allow those with low incomes to pay as little as zero on their student loans, as long as they qualify based on income and amount of debt.

• increase in Pell Grants
• reduction in interest rates on federal loans from 6.0% to 5.6%
• TEACH grants for qualified undergraduate students who commit to teaching in public schools in high-poverty communities or high-need subject areas.
• Loan forgiveness after 10 years for public servants

The soaring dropout rate is causing the United States to lose ground educationally to rivals abroad and is trapping millions of young Americans at the very margins of the economy.

Many of this country’s large urban high schools are rightly called “dropout factories” because more students leave school than graduate....The dropout crisis presents a clear danger to national prosperity.

Currently, people who are out of work and want to go back to school have to give up their monthly unemployment check. And if they decide to return to school, they often don't qualify for federal grants because eligibility is based upon the previous year's income.

The student lending market is far smaller than the housing market. But it raises a similar question: Does it make sense for the government to pump its education dollars through banks — which divert some of the money for their own profits, wine and dine college financial aid officers to get on "preferred lender" lists, and lobby Washington to keep the spigot open?

The administration estimates it can save as much as $94 billion over 10 years by eliminating middlemen and lending directly. Even if that number is exaggerated, it reflects how inefficiently taxpayers' money is being spent. Banks shouldn't need major subsidies to issue guaranteed student loans.

While Brennan’s situation, and the remedy he is pursuing, may sound extremely ambitious, guidance counselors across the country say they can recall no prior year in which so many applicants’ families have been squeezed by so many financial pressures.

Not only have families’ incomes been falling as their savings have dwindled, but also tuition has been rising — including proposed increases of nearly 10 percent next year throughout the University of California system....

Interest rates on student loans, including on popular federal programs like the unsubsidized Stafford (now nearly 7 percent) and Parent Plus (8.5 percent), are running several percentage points higher than the rates on secured loans, like home equity lines of credit.

“The difference of rates between secured and unsecured loans is higher than I have ever seen,” said Scott White, director of counseling services at Westfield High School in New Jersey. “This is one further impediment to access to post-secondary education for all but the well-to-do.”

AmeriCorps is experiencing a significant surge of applications. Last month, AmeriCorps received 17,038 online applications, nearly triple the 6,770 received in March 2008. In the past five months, AmeriCorps received 48,520 online applications, up 234 percent over the 14,532 that came in during the same five month period a year ago. Many volunteer centers and nonprofit groups are also reporting a “compassion boom” of increased numbers of volunteers.

Nearly 40 years ago, the Occupational Safety and Health Act was enacted to protect workers against these very abuses. The law has saved hundreds of thousands of lives and helped millions more avoid exposure to preventable illnesses and injuries.

But the law's protections have eroded in recent decades – especially over the past eight years. All too often, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's leadership failed to adequately protect workers from well-documented workplace threats – from exposure to a chemical that causes popcorn lung disease to combustible dust to dangers on construction sites....

This neglect has left OSHA significantly weakened and put workers in greater jeopardy.

It begins with good leadership that's committed to restoring OSHA's mission. President Obama's Labor Secretary, Hilda Solis, is a passionate advocate for working families and she's determined to reverse the harmful damage wrought during the Bush years. But good leadership only goes so far – we also need to give her additional tools to effectively enforce the law.

Last week, I joined other Democrats in introducing the Protecting America's Workers Act, legislation that would modernize current law by updating its penalties, strengthening whistleblower protections and ensuring that bad employers are held accountable. It will allow OSHA to finally do its job – and it is a critical start toward improving the safety of our workplaces.

This week the Education and Labor Committee will hold hearings to examine how OSHA can toughen penalties and impose effective enforcement. Penalties haven't been updated since 1990 and aren't indexed for inflation. Unscrupulous CEOs often face nothing more than a drop in the bucket for egregious violations.

"There clearly has been a raid on these funds by the people of Wall Street. And it's cost the savers and the future retirees a lot of money that would otherwise be in their account, independent of the financial collapse," Rep. George Miller [D-CA] said.

Congressman Miller is chairman of the House Committee on Education and Labor, and a staunch critic of the 401(k) industry, especially its practice of deducting more than a dozen undisclosed fees from its clients' 401(k) accounts.

"Now you got a bunch of economic wizards jumping in and taking money out of your retirement plan, and they don't wanna tell you how much, you can't decipher it in simple English, and they're not interested in disclosing it, or having any transparency about it," Miller told Kroft.

"And most of the people that look at their 401(k)s have no idea that these fees are being taken out?" Kroft asked.

"No. Where would you find it? Where would you find these fees in this prospectus? You can look on any page you want, and when you're all done reading it, and you will find some of the fees and the commissions here, but you won't find them all, and I'll bet you won't find half of 'em," Miller said.

There are legal fees, trustee fees, transactional fees, stewardship fees, bookkeeping fees, finder's fees. The list goes on and on.

Miller's committee has heard testimony that they can eat up half the income in some 401(k) plans over a 30-year span. But he has not been able to stop it.

"We tried to just put in some disclosure and transparency in these fees. And we felt the full fury of that financial lobby," he said.

David Wray, a lobbyist for the 401(k) industry, says he favors disclosing the fees, but his partners in the financial industry don't.

Asked if he thinks most people know these fees exist, Wray said, "I think they know that there are fees. They don't know exactly how large they are."

"Why do you think the financial services industry is opposed to fee transparency?" Kroft asked.

"I don't know that they're opposed to it. I think the issue is that…," Wray replied.

"You don't think they're opposed to it?" Kroft asked. "You're a lobbyist in Washington, right? You know they're opposed to it. …George Miller hasn't been able to get a bill to the floor."

"I think they want to keep the systems as simple and not make changes. They like the way things are. And whenever you push people out of their comfort zones, you know, it's an issue," Wray replied.

"I mean, they're comfortable with the situation because they're making a ton of money or they have made a ton of money," Kroft said.

"Well, and their systems are set up in certain ways. You know, this is gonna be a big change," Wray replied.

Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) believes the many fees extracted from 401(k) accounts are adding insult to injury for millions of Americans whose accounts have been decimated by stock losses and whose retirements are now in jeopardy.

Miller talks to 60 Minutes correspondent Steve Kroft for a report on how the recession is affecting 401(k) retirement plans to be broadcast this Sunday, April 17, 2009.

"There clearly has been a raid on these funds by the people of Wall Street and it has cost the savers - and the future retirees - a lot of money that would otherwise be in their accounts, independent of the financial collapse," says Miller, the chairman of the House Committee on Education and Labor. The chairman also dislikes the hidden nature of the more-than-a-dozen fees that most Americans are not fully aware are being skimmed off their 401(k)s. "And I'll bet you won't find half of them here," he tells Kroft, holding out a prospectus from a popular mutual fund found in many 401(k) portfolios.

The various fees can include legal fees, trustee fees, transactional fees, stewardship fees, bookkeeping fees, sales fees, asset management fees, investment management fees, investment advisor fees, finder's fees and many more.

Miller has been trying to curb what he considers excessive fees. "We tried to just put in some disclosure and transparency in these fees and we felt the full fury of the financial lobby," he says. (From CBSNews.com)

This proposal would not threaten private lenders' ability to make private loans to college students at unregulated (and often highly profitable) interest rates. It would simply allow the federal government to keep the profits from loans it already subsidizes, instead of handing them over to banks. It would improve efficiency and save money, and it should have been passed a long time ago.

Private companies that reap undeserved profits from the federal student-loan program are gearing up to kill a White House plan that would get them off the dole and redirect the savings to federal scholarships for the needy. Instead of knuckling under to the powerful lending lobby, as it has so often done in the past, Congress needs to finally put the taxpayers’ interests first. That means embracing President Obama’s plan.

Matt Lauer: With 1.4 million associate employees that earn an average wage of $10.83 an hour, Wal-Mart now faces a threat to its corporate model. There's proposed legislation on Capitol Hill that would make it easier for unions to organize employees, the Employee Free Choice Act, doing away with secret ballots. Unions say it will make it easier for American workers to earn a fair salary. Others, like the guy who runs Home Depot, the co-founder, says it's going to cripple American business. What's the truth?
 
Mike Duke: Well, of course, we are opposed to that. We have a unique relationship with our associates. Of all of our managers across America, 3 out of 4 started with the company as an hourly associate. 95% of our associates across America have health care insurance in some fashion. It's really one of those bills that would be damaging to the American economy long-term.

Under the College Cost Reduction and Access Act of 2007, two federal loan forgiveness programs could provide greater assistance to those who decide to pursue careers that serve the public. Income-Based Repayment (IBR) and Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) could make student loan forgiveness much more accessible to the masses.

"Both of these programs are much more widely available than anything that's been available in the past," says Irons.

If the story of the janitors and groundskeepers at the Carnegie Science Center weren't true, it would seem as if the advocates of the Employee Free Choice Act were making it up.

Those 10 people work for the same employer as the 50 people who clean the Carnegie Museums of Art and Natural History and the Carnegie Libraries. Yet, because of a quirk of history dating to a time when the individual museums were run as if they were separate organizations, the janitorial staffs at the museums and libraries are unionized. The cleaners at the Science Center are not….

The pay is $7.85 an hour. He is without medical insurance and is not granted days off with pay for sick time or vacation….

The janitors at the Oakland museums and the Carnegie Libraries of Pittsburgh make $10 to $14 an hour and are awarded full benefits, including health insurance, vacation time and sick days, according to Gabe Morgan from the union that represents them.

the legislation establishes a separate program, a $1,000 educational stipend called a Silver Scholarship, for adults over 55 who serve 350 or more hours with a qualified organization, Mr. Gomperts said. That money can be transferred to a child, foster child or grandchild.

In addition, AmeriCorps volunteers age 55 and older who serve full time for a year would be able to transfer their education award, which would be increased to $5,350 from $4,725, to a child, foster child or grandchild.

The bill also creates Encore Fellowships matching those age 55 and older with public or private nonprofit organizations for one-year management or leadership positions. Just as internships help younger adults enter a new field, these modestly paid positions provide a bridge for professionals from the for-profit world to second careers in the nonprofit world.

In many ways, Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, and dozens of other communities still haven't recovered from the record-setting June 2008 floods that ripped apart homes and lives across eastern Iowa.

But with the help of organizations and programs supported by the AmeriCorps volunteer service program, they are seeing significant improvements.

The recession is affecting artists, dancers and musicians everywhere, including the Bay Area, but hope is on the way. A House committee in Washington is examining how communities everywhere are being affected. $50 million has been set aside to give a boost to the arts and entertainment industry. The arts are big business generating 5.7 million jobs and $166 billion in economic activity each year. The House Education and Labor Committee, chaired by Congressman George Miller (D) of Concord, was told artists are unemployed and need their share of the stimulus package.

The nation is close to a major civic breakthrough. By a 321-to-105 vote last week, the House approved an ambitious bipartisan measure to enlarge the opportunities for Americans of all ages and income levels to participate in productive national and community service.

A similar plan is now before the Senate. A favorable vote this week would help speed a worthy initiative to President Obama’s desk.

Essentially, the measure is an expansion of AmeriCorps, the existing domestic service program. It would increase the number of full-time and part-time service volunteers to 250,000 from 75,000 and create new programs focused on special areas like strengthening schools, improving health care for low-income communities, boosting energy efficiency and cleaning up parks.

This is a chance to constructively harness the idealism of thousands of Americans eager to contribute time and energy to solving the nation’s problems — a chance not to be missed.

Thompson Electric is proof that unions are good for workers and good for business. Our positive, long-term partnership with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers is one of the main reasons that I, as an entrepreneur and business owner, support passage of the Employee Free Choice Act. More workers across the United States should be given a free and fair chance to form a union, just like our employees.

Our union workers receive the most cutting-edge job training available, and it pays off through lower injury rates, increased productivity and a strengthened ability to serve the people of Ohio. The union difference is not only impressive, but a valuable commodity in our line of work.

In this spirit, Congress is now poised to send me bipartisan legislation — the Serve America and GIVE Acts — that, if passed, will usher in a new era of service in this new century.

This legislation will help connect people at all stages of life with opportunities to serve. It will establish an army of 250,000 Americans a year who are willing to serve part time or full time working to meet our most pressing challenges, from modernizing our schools to building homes for those in need. And this legislation will provide new support for social entrepreneurship, identifying and nurturing promising new service programs around the country.

Members of Congress from across the political spectrum — from Senators Orrin Hatch and Mike Enzi and Representative Howard (Buck) McKeon to Senators Ted Kennedy and Barbara Mikulski and Representative George Miller — have pledged their support for this legislation. I urge Congress to follow their lead and move quickly to pass it so that I can sign it into law. And I pledge that my Administration will also do its part to help more Americans serve their communities. At this time of economic crisis, when so many people are in need of help, this work could not be more urgent.

This week, the House is expected to pass a bill that would increase the number of federally funded service slots to 250,000, and the Senate will soon begin moving similar legislation. The proposals build on the initiatives of our past three presidents -- yes, this is an issue on which George W. Bush deserves credit, too -- and it may even produce that much prized but elusive Washington commodity: a large bipartisan majority. The House proposal won committee approval last week with overwhelming support from both parties.

Rep. George Miller, a Democrat who chairs the House Education and Labor Committee and is leading the House effort for a service bill, is known as one tough legislative strategist. But he is positively tender when he describes visiting Habitat for Humanity projects, meeting with Teach for America volunteers or spending time with church groups that have provided relief in natural disasters. "It's one of the great rewarding things in politics," he told me.

On Monday, Miller will announce that the GIVE Act (don't ask what the acronym means; too clunky) is on its way to passage by the House. Because representatives of the House, Senate and White House have been working together on a bipartisan basis for weeks, the skids are now greased for quick Senate passage of the Kennedy-Hatch Act for national service, the only specific piece of legislation the president mentioned in his address to Congress last month. Differences between the House and Senate versions will be minor.

Anxious readers who had lost their jobs wanted to know how they could apply for the subsidy, which will cover 65 percent of laid-off workers' COBRA health insurance premiums if they choose to continue their health insurance under their former employer's plan. The reason for their concern is no mystery: The federal law known as COBRA that permits them to extend their health insurance also requires them to pay 100 percent of the premium, plus an administrative fee of 2 percent. For people trying to get by on an unemployment insurance check of around $325 a week, shelling out $1,000 or more a month for health insurance is often not feasible. Even a helping hand of 65 percent doesn't make COBRA cheap, but for some the subsidy will at least make coverage affordable.

The budget rightly calls for phasing out the wasteful and all-too-corruptible portion of the student program that relies on private lenders. And it calls for expanding the less-expensive and more-efficient program that allows students to borrow directly from the federal government. That means doing away with the Federal Family Education Loan Program, under which private lenders receive unnecessary subsidies to make risk-free student loans that are guaranteed by taxpayers.

Included in the stimulus package is up to $33.6 billion toward school modernization. At the Indianapolis Public Schools, school officials have created a "working document" over the past two weeks to identify structural priorities in their 72 school buildings that could be addressed with stimulus money. "Frankly, it's student safety," says spokeswoman Mary Louise Bewley. "Things like ensuring exterior doors are working well."

The economic stimulus package signed into law last month seeks to address the high costs by subsidizing COBRA premiums for unemployed workers. Under the federal Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, or COBRA, laid-off workers can continue their former employer's health coverage for up to 18 months, but only if they pay the entire premium, plus a 2% administrative fee. Average COBRA premiums exceed $400 a month for individuals, and more than $1,000 a month for families.

The stimulus package will subsidize 65% of COBRA premiums for employees who were laid off between Sept. 1 and the end of this year. If you delayed signing up for COBRA coverage when you lost your job, you have 60 days to re-enroll after you receive a notice from your employer.

The stimulus package, including a $54 billion “stabilization” fund to protect schools against layoffs and budget cuts, is rightly framed to encourage compliance. States will need to create data collection systems that should ideally show how children perform year to year as well as how teachers affect student performance over time. States will also be required to improve academic standards as well as the notoriously weak tests now used to measure achievement — replacing, for instance, the pervasive fill-in-the-bubble tests with advanced assessments that better measure writing and thinking.